Epigram to close only bookshop at SAM in Jan 2025

SINGAPORE – Home-grown bookstore and SingLit bastion Epigram Books will cease operations of its bookshop at Singapore Art Museum (SAM) on Jan 26, 2025. Owner and publisher Edmund Wee said in a statement: “We tried everything to make this work.”

The announcement on Sept 19 comes just three days after

Times Bookstores said it is shutting its last outlet

in Holland Road.

Epigram Coffee Bookshop, which has been at SAM in Tanjong Pagar Distripark since May 2022, cited low sales and foot traffic at the port container park, which has in recent years emerged as an art cluster.

The possibility of another bricks-and-mortar store for Epigram – the first bookstore in Singapore to dedicate itself to selling books by only Singapore authors in 2019 – is doubtful.

“Unless rent prices relent, it’s unlikely we’ll move into another space,” Mr Wee said.

Epigram’s

first bookstore in 2019 was at the more central location of Urban Redevelopment Authority Centre

in Maxwell Road. During Covid-19, it operated a pop-up in Beach Road before moving into SAM’s spaces.

Since then, there have been complaints about the shop’s inaccessibility, despite shuttle buses operating when shows are on.  Footfall was also tied to the schedule of the gallery’s exhibitions, as there was little reason to travel to the industrial park when galleries were being refreshed.

SAM said it is looking at food and beverage operators to take over the space.

Epigram Books is one of the biggest players on Singapore’s independent book scene. Its publishing arm promotes home-grown fiction through the annual open-call

Epigram Books Fiction Prize

, and has published more than 400 titles in the last 11 years. The publisher also set up an arm in London from 2016 to 2021 with the ambition to get a Singapore book on the longlist of the prestigious Man Booker Prize.

Its titles include the Eisner-award winning graphic novel The Art Of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (2015) by Sonny Liew, and Jeremy Tiang’s Singapore Literature Prize-winning State Of Emergency (2017).

Its online store will continue to operate. Mr Wee said compared with its temporary closure during the pandemic, this was a more frustrating experience that could not be pinned on exceptional circumstances. “We just don’t have anywhere else to go,” he said.